Paul Starr Pilot Episode

by **Father Unwin** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:04 pm

I know that the puppet series 'Space Patrol' was not a Gerry Anderson production but I recently bought the 2 disc set just to see if I could remember it.

I can just about recall the characters Marla, Professor Haggerty and Husky but the reason for this post is that I just want to say how ridiculously addictive I found the pilot episode of the colour series that was not commissioned called 'Paul Starr'.

Of course, Shaqui has an absolutely wonderful website devoted to Space Patrol and there is a full review of the Paul Starr pilot there.

I had originally planned to watch a few episodes of Space Patrol and then sell the set on eBay. However, I cannot bring myself to sell the boxset now because of Paul Starr!

It's absolutely crazy being full of plagiarised ideas - robots that look like daleks, a craft that has the same colour design as Stingray and music which sounds like Gerry Anderson. The craft and special effects are terrible but the puppets, robots and sets are great.

The best character is the chief who has a constant battle to assert himself being surrounded by insolent robots and an attractive assistant. The storyline is wildly different with electronic birds delivering exploding eggs and aliens with transistor radios.

I have watched Paul Starr about 6 times already and the lead character is, of course, voiced by the late Ed Bishop.

CALL FOR STARR!! says the singer in the end credits - too right!

by **Kinggodzillak** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:37 pm

That theme song is like Supercar and Stingray stuck together, isn't it?

by **Sweeps** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 11:28 pm

When I saw Paul Starr on youtube at first (judging by the video's title I thought it was going to be some weird Beatles thing PAUL McCartney and Ringo STARR) I found it quite enjoyable.

I was lucky enough to buy the repackaged Space Patrol DVD set in November (yeah like I'm going to pay God knows how much for the original release, the repackaged set alone cost me £45!) and Paul Starr was an extra on one of the discs.

Of course it's nowhere near as good as Thunderbirds, CS or Stingray but it was interesting to see what might have been

the end credits song is just so funny -

PAUL STAAAAAAAAAARR

by **Winged Assassin** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:04 pm

Interesting to see puppets with rubber faces at such a point in time, makes you wonder why the Gerry Anderson programs didn't follow suit and try to advance their puppets in that way.

by **Sweeps** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 11:08 am

Winged Assassin wrote:Interesting to see puppets with rubber faces at such a point in time, makes you wonder why the Gerry Anderson programs didn't follow suit and try to advance their puppets in that way.

That's probably the one and only thing that's better than any Gerry Anderson puppet show of the 60's - well actually, maybe it wouldn't have suited shows like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, it suited terrahawks though